“Family Guy: Stewie’s Sexy Party Game” is a great looking, fun to play game that is full of surprises. First of all, even the rules are entertaining, filled with humor and clever references. After reading them, players know they are in for a treat.

The game includes 50 Party cards, and a Spinner, which will define the theme of the party being thrown by Stewie, There are 432 Word cards, each featuring one of 6 Family Guy characters, Peter, Lois, Chris, Meg, Brian and of course Stewie. Every Word card also includes a specific Quote, Place, Action, Person, Description or Thing. There are also 122 tokens (called Martini tokens) used to keep score and 12 additional blank Word cards, where players can go ahead and put in any name (Person) of their choosing. The game is recommended for 4 or more players ages 14 years old and up.

ToysBulletin.com looks at some new game cards for “Castle Combat” from KidRealm.

For those readers unfamiliar with “Castle Combat,” here is a quick rundown on the game. Do you remember the game of War, where a standard 52 card deck is used to match cards against each other, with the card of higher value winning. The game continued, sometimes for hours, until one player had captured all 52 cards. “Castle Combat” takes the concept of War much farther and creates a lot more excitement.

As has been the case in past years, we continue to see so many quality and exciting new products during the year that it is especially difficult to single out just a few standouts. Plus, we also know that we cannot possibly test and review every toy and game released by every manufacturer in the past 12 months, so there is no doubt that we may have missed some good ones.

Here are the guidelines we follow in making our selections. “The Best of 2016” is based solely on the toys and games that we have reviewed on our website from November 2015 through October 2016. We have purposely excluded some older items, which may have been reviewed during that period, because that toy or game has been around for a number of years. However, in some circumstances, we have also included an item that was new to us at Toys Bulletin, even though it may have been available for purchase prior to November 2015.

ToysBulletin.com reviews another award winning game from Mayfair Games.

As the recent winner of the Kennerspiel des Jahres (“Connoisseur/Expert Game of the Year”), we were excited to play test “Isle of Skye,” and we certainly were not disappointed.

“Isle of Skye” is basically a tile replacement game, however its fast game play and strategic elements place it firmly at the top tier of these types of games. The game contents include a double-sided game board, 16 scoring tiles, 78 landscape tiles (5 with castles), 6 player screens, a cloth bag, along with various coins, markers and tokens. The game is designed for 2-5 players ages 8 years old and up, and a typical game can be played in less than 60 minutes. The object of the game is to collect the most victory points and become the king of “Isle of Skye.”

“Imagine” is a game that is unlike any other we have played recently. 3-8 players ages 12 years old and up are asked to first draw an enigma card. There are 65 such cards, and each provides a list of 8 enigmas (creative challenges) including objects, songs, TV shows, movies, characters, geography, fairy tales and many more. There are also 61 transparent cards, each depicting a shape, an image or everyday objects. The idea of the game is for players to use as many of the transparent cards as needed to allow the other players to guess the enigma listed on the card.

ToysBulletin.com looks at a nifty little card game from Minotaur Games.

“Pirate Loot” was designed by Jason Bulmahn, creator of the Pathfinder Role Playing game, and features some great game play for 2-4 players with a suggested age of 13 years old and up. The game contents include 4 Ship cards, 4 Rank cards, 23 Loot cards and 77 Draw cards. The backs of the cards are nicely marked so it easy to distinguish between the different types of cards. The Pirate who collects the most loot by the end of the game is declared the winner.

Generally, we find that word/spelling games are geared to older kids, but the Fat Brain Toy Co. has released a great little game called “WOO!” that will have wide appeal to kids as young as six years old.

“WOO” arrives in a handy metal tin containing 65 wooden letter tiles, each measuring 1″ square. The game is designed for 2-4 players and a typical game lasts only 20 minutes or so. The object of the game is to spell any number from one through ten, using the letter tiles provided, and earn points that equal the number spelled. Therefore, if a player spells the number five, that player would earn 5 points. The letter tiles are also very unique in that many of the tiles contain more than one letter. For example, in order to spell the number 3, a player needs just four tiles, one T, one HR tile, and two E tiles (THREE).

The staff at Toys Bulletin really got into “GobbleStones” from R&R Games. It was simple to play, easy to set up and strategic as well. The game plays in around 30 minutes and is suggested for 2-4 players ages 10 years old and up.

“GobbleStones” includes 100 small colored tiles (5 different colors of 20 each). The tiles measure about ¾” square, and each fits nicely onto any of the 25 colored and numbered stone images on the 9 doubled-sided board squares. There is also a nice pad of score sheets, 4 plastic tile racks and a tile bag.